Getting Started

I know your day is packed. Your design team has questions they need answered now.

Should we use toggle switches or radio buttons? What's the best way to design this form? How should we handle this navigation?

You have two options. And both are bad.

You can send them to watch hour-long videos. Maybe they'll find an answer. Eventually.

Or you can let them guess and hope for the best. Because there's "no time" for learning.

Both paths lead to problems.

Your designers waste hours watching stuff they don't need. Or they make choices that someone has to fix later.

Let's talk about a better way.

Picture this. Your designer isn't sure about using radio buttons or dropdowns. Instead of guessing, they search for this exact question. They spend 5 minutes learning the answer. Then they apply it to the design they're working on right now.

This happened at Deloitte Digital Belgium. Their designers now look up quick answers when they hit specific problems. Right in the middle of client projects.

Teams using this approach finish 8x more learning. And they use what they learn in real work. Today. Not someday.

What You'll Need: The Just-in-Time Learning Kit

Let's keep this simple. Here's what you need to make learning fit into busy days:

  • Uxcel Teams account with admin access
  • Access to Uxcel's UX training
  • UX Skill Mapping to see where your team needs help
  • UX Certifications to show off what your team learns
  • Mobile phones for learning during small breaks
  • Real design problems your team is working on right now
  • Just 5 minutes per day (during commutes, coffee breaks, or while waiting for feedback)

This isn't like those big learning systems that take forever to set up. The teams at Deloitte and Vail Systems found that Uxcel fits right into how they already work.

It doesn't add extra work. It actually makes current work easier by giving quick answers to design questions.

Step 1: Map Your Team's Current UX Skills

Let's start with knowing where your team stands. You can't plan a trip without knowing your starting point.

Why this matters: Teams often have skill gaps they don't know about. You might waste time teaching stuff they already know. Or miss things they really need help with.

How to do it:

  1. Log into your Uxcel Teams dashboard
  2. Go to the Assignments section
  3. Assign Uxcel Pulse to your entire organization
  4. Ask everyone to complete their assessments within 2 days
  5. Check out the results when they complete the assignment. It will show you where your team members currently stand and where they can be

Pro Tip: Have a quick 15-minute team chat to explain why you're checking skills. Make it clear this isn't about judging anyone. It's about finding the right lessons for each person.

What You'll Get: You'll pinpoint the exact skills your team members have and where they need help. This lets you focus learning on the things that will help most with current projects.

Step 2: Create Bite-sized Learning Plans

Now that you know where your team needs help, let's set up learning that fits into their busy days.

Why this matters: Big, long courses just don't work for busy designers. No one has hours of free time between project deadlines and meetings.

How to do it:

  1. Go to Reporting
  2. Click on a specific team member
  3. Click on specific skill category that your team member lacks
  4. Select learning assets tailored to the specific skill
  5. Start assigning targeted learning assets to turn skill gaps into strengths

Pro Tip: Mix basic skills with hot new topics to keep things fresh. Pair wireframing basics with new voice interface patterns, for example.

What You'll Get: Each person gets learning that fits their specific needs. And it all fits into small breaks in their day.

Step 3: Make Learning a Just-in-Time Habit

Here's where the magic happens. Let's connect 5-minute learning directly to the work your team does every day.

Why this matters: Learning sticks when it solves today's problems. When designers can use what they learn on their current project, they remember it much better.

How to do it:

  1. Create a channel in Slack or MS Teams, depending what you're using
  2. Let team members post design problems they're stuck on
  3. Show them how to search Uxcel for specific answers (like onboarding, landing pages best practices, etc...)
  4. Dedicate 5-minutes of your time to go through the specific lesson that is aligned with your project
  5. Use what you learn yourself and implement it in your day-to-day activities
  6. Start team meetings with one person sharing "something I learned that helped me today"

Pro Tip: If you're using Slack, you can install Uxcel Slack App. Our app will send you daily lessons in the app you use the most. If you're not using Slack, you can install iOS or Android App. This will allow you to learn on the go.

What You'll Get: Your team starts seeing Uxcel as their go-to tool when they get stuck. Learning becomes part of doing the actual work.

Step 4: Make Learning Visible to Your Boss

Here's a hidden bonus. Smart learning can make your design team look amazing to company leaders.

Why this matters: At Vail Systems, showing off design team learning in meetings changed everything. What started as skill building turned into executive recognition of design as a business driver.

How to do it:

  1. Check the "Team Skill Graph" before leadership meetings
  2. Add a quick 2-minute "Design Skill Spotlight" when you report to your leaders
  3. Combine Skill Graph Growth visualization with growth graph
  4. Show how a specific lesson helped improve a customer-facing project
  5. Connect learning to business numbers (faster development, happier users)
  6. Share team achievements in company emails or Slack
  7. Invite non-design bosses to see your team's growing skill map

What You'll Get: Your design team shifts from being seen as a service to being recognized as a strategic asset. Leadership starts including design thinking in big company decisions.

How Deloitte Digital Belgium Found Time for Learning

Dries De Schepper at Deloitte Digital Belgium had a problem we all know too well. His 17 designers were swamped with client work. They had no time for learning.

"Our designers were motivated to learn. But they didn't have the time," says Dries. "We needed something that could teach in minutes, not hours."

His team started using Uxcel's 5-minute lessons. Designers learned during coffee breaks, between meetings, or while waiting for feedback.

The change was fast and practical:

  • Designers started using better design terms in their discussions
  • Team members looked up specific answers when stuck on projects
  • When debating toggle switches vs. buttons on a client project, they quickly found best practices
"What surprised me most was how fast learning became part of our daily routine. Even designers who finished all courses keep coming back to check things they bookmarked."

How Vail Systems Made UX a Business Star

Joshua Delzer at Vail Systems faced a different challenge. He needed to make UX important in a company focused on engineering.

"I needed to make UX visible while building consistent design skills across scattered teams. Trying to track learning on multiple platforms was a mess."

After using Uxcel Teams, he saw fast business results:

  • Faster development by removing rework from inconsistent UX patterns
  • More users adopting their products at Fortune 500 clients
  • Less friction between engineers and designers because they spoke the same design language
  • Three designers moved up to senior roles, saving recruitment costs
"The biggest change was how achievements became celebration moments in leadership meetings. This made design visible across the company. Now executives include UX in their planning talks."

Both stories show that when learning fits your schedule and connects to daily work, it does more than build skills. It changes how design works in your whole company.

Implementation Guide: The Microlearning Approach

Week 1: Start Small

  • Set up Uxcel Teams with a few excited designers
  • Have this small group try the skill mapping
  • Let them see how quick and useful the learning is

Week 2: Connect Learning to Projects

  • Find current projects with specific design problems
  • Create direct links to lessons that answer these exact questions
  • Share in project chats: "Stuck on this navigation? Here's a 5-minute fix"

Week 3: Make it Social

  • In your next design meeting, take 2 minutes to show what someone learned and used
  • Create a simple leaderboard somewhere everyone can see
  • Ask early users to share how quick lessons helped solve real problems

Week 4: Link to Daily Work

  • Start a channel in your preferred communication tool
  • Show how to search for answers in Uxcel instead of scheduling long meetings
  • Keep track of times when 5-minute learning prevented hours of fixes later

Solutions to Common Problems:

  • "We're too busy with client work" - Deloitte shows that learning can happen in small breaks, not big chunks of time
  • "Our designers have different skill levels" - Vail Systems used skill mapping to find each person's needs
  • "Learning doesn't stick" - Both teams found that when learning connects to current project problems, people remember it way better

Wrapping Up: From Learning to Business Win

This is the hidden power of bite-sized, just-in-time learning. It doesn't just make better designers. It changes how your whole company sees design.

When learning connects directly to daily project needs:

  • Designers get answers right when they need them
  • Projects move faster with fewer mistakes
  • Teams build a shared design language
  • Leadership starts seeing design as a business driver

Want to transform how your team learns and how your company sees design? Try Uxcel Teams and see results on your very next project.